Halloween '13

The day before Halloween, we went to my parent's house to paint pumpkins! Aunt Ray Ray joined us and we had a fun, messy time painting each of our pumpkins. G-Mommy helped Stella with her pumpkin and Stella loved switching up her colors and sticking her dirty brush in each of the colors. We just let her go at it and she had a blast. My mom had also gotten three cat masks for us to paint, too. Stella started out painting the whole thing orange and then she added every single other color! We have a little girl who definitely loves to paint and color! My mom had set up a fun lunch for us and then when Stella went down for her nap I started on pumpkin spice cookies. Oh my YUM! My first attempt at the cookies ended up with me having to re-do all the ingredients and so the second time around I bothered to READ the directions. I was a bit distracted the first go 'round and had to take Stella upstairs while I was combining ingredients the first time, so I combined every single ingredient before I realized that was incorrect. I'm SO glad I re-did it (I almost said to heck with it) because they may be one of my favorite cookies ever now. The icing is amazing, too. I'm glad I ate a few cookies at my parents house, because all the cookies I took home didn't even last a full 12 hours (ahem, thanks honey, take the pregnant girl's cookies ;))! I included the recipe below and I will probably be making another batch this week!

I picked up Stella's "Dorofy" (as she likes to call it) costume at Kid to Kid over a month ago. She already had a little stuffed dog that looked like Todo, and then my mom got her a little basket for Todo from Hobby Lobby. To date, I had not put her hair in pony tails or pig tails. And I'm not real sure why...other than her hair is a little overwhelming. It seems to grow out sideways rather than down! But, as soon as I put those pig tails in her hair I about died of cuteness! I was so happy with the way her costume came together...and of course she totally owned it!

Halloween night we went to the Trunk or Treat at our church. We had so much fun last year on the Abbott's hay ride, but I wanted to do something a little different this year. Plus, I've noticed that Stella is really starting to pay attention and notice things that scare her. She was kind of oblivious and too young last year to get scared. I just remembered so many "scary" things in the neighborhood last year that I wanted to take her somewhere that I knew would have less of a chance of the "scary" stuff being there.  I'm just not ready for her to start being fearful of things like that. She had a BLAST at Trunk or Treat and was so cute looking at everything. She loved someone's car who had done spiderman and batman. They had a blow up spider man on top of their van and she could not peel herself away! She was a little nervous of Darth Vader at the Stars Wars car at first, but she seemed to get over it. They had some bounce houses and bounce slides and she loved those, too. We had a great evening and I just loved seeing my cute little Dorothy enjoying herself! My parents, sister, sister in-law, brother in-law, niece, mother in-law and father in-law all came to the Trunk or Treat - I love having our families close by!

{My ADORABLE little niece!! Grace is rocking the monster costume!}

Pumpkin Spice Cookies:

 Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) of softened butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• Frosting
• 1 cup (2 sticks) of softened butter
• 8 oz of room temperature cream cheese
• 4 cups of powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• pinch of kosher salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine sugar and butter, and beat with paddle attachment until fluffy.
4. Add egg and vanilla, and continue beating until combined.
5. Add flour mixture and stir just until combined.
6. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
7. Roll two tablespoons of cookie dough into a ball and place on baking sheet.
8. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until edges are golden. Don't over bake.
9. Let cool and frost.
10. Sprinkle cookies with additional pumpkin pie spice.
11. To prepare frosting, using the paddle attachment, beat butter, powdered sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and pinch of salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
12. With mixer still running, add in vanilla extract.
13. Divide cream cheese into 8 cubes and drop them into the mixture one at a time until well combined.

All Things Fall

This is definitely my favorite time of year - all the holidays, the cooler weather, just everything. We've done lots of fun things so far this month and have a couple more fun activities planned before November comes.

A brief pregnancy update - I'm 26 weeks this week and I feel just great. Aside from the normal aches and pains, anything beats nausea and throwing up! I was SUPER sore for a couple weeks in my lower abdomen and sure enough I had quite the growth spurt afterwards...but I am definitely one who LOVES having a baby belly. It's so special and I really enjoy everything about this belly growing bigger! Blakely is right on target for growth, but that little girl must really positioned on my bladder. I'm getting up between 4-7 times a NIGHT!! And I cut myself off from having any liquid after dinner. Kind of a bummer.

We've finished painting Stella's "big girl room" and will be pulling her "big girl bed" down from the attic within the next week. She's so funny and asks quite a few times each day to go see her "big girl room." Stella is just loving school and asks about her teacher, Ms. Amy, all the time. When we walk into preschool, she starts telling all the teachers down the hallway, "I'm baaaack!!" Of course, because the whole world revolves around her ;) She just runs into her classroom without looking back! I have some pictures below from her fall festival at school. They had us decorate their tricycles and they did a parade {which for youngsters was more like contained chaos in the gym}, then had a bounce house, train, and a party! She talks about her "lil sister" and "Blakely" and wants to feel my belly any time I mention that Blakely is kicking. She cannot WAIT to hold Blakely once she gets here and reminds me that she gets to hold her. We also had a super fun trip to the Arboretum with my mom at the beginning of the month. We got there right when it opened and had a good hour before it started getting really crowded. I finally gave up trying to get Stella to look at the camera and just snapped away hoping I'd get a few decent ones! I put an album on FB so I wouldn't overload this post with pumpkin pics, but I was really happy with how they all turned out! We also went to the State Fair of Texas, which might be one of my favorite places! Again, we got there close to when it opened (on a rainy Wednesday) and it was quite pleasant until about noon and then the crowd picked up. Stella LOVED the rides. It was so precious and she actually cried when it was time to leave the rides. She of course loved the animals too...and I loved the food. We went with my parents, sister, and Blake was able to come! He likes to pretend like he's not going to come with me until the last minute! Stella also took a little trip up to my dad's office and she is hilarious. My mom took her up there and I met them for lunch afterwards, but they said she walked into the office of one of the highest positioned guy's office and she said "What choo doing in here?" He's one of my dad's closest friends at work so they got a total kick out of her. I love how she walked around most everywhere like she owns the place! That's one of her favorite questions though, along with "why" and "what happened?" (still!) Stella cannot get enough of football and wants to go to any game she can or watch it on TV any time it's on....she's told me a few times while we're watching it on TV that she wants to "hug 'em" (the football players) - no clue why, but it's funny! One afternoon after preschool, Blake and I took Stella to Elevate trampoline park and we had the place to ourselves! We were there a little less than an house, but she had a blast! They have some mommy and me discounts so we'll probably go back one rainy day!

I also got to have a little girls trip this month, which was SO needed. We went to my friend, Lauren's, in-laws lake house in Mt. Vernon and had the most relaxing time. Mt. Vernon was having their city's fall festival, so that got us out of the house for a little bit, and other than that we stayed in and chatted, watched movies, and made yummy treats! I was also able to go to the Just Between Friends Sale (which is a consignment sale) at the beginning of this month, too. I scored some great stuff, but the prices were so comparable to Kid to Kid, that I'm not sure it's worth going back next year.

One of my two best girlfriends from high school had her gender reveal party last weekend and it was so cute how she decorated and so much fun and anticipation for finding out her sweet little baby is a GIRL! I also found out that night that my other best friend from GCA is pregnant too - I'm SO excited that we're all three pregnant together. We were inseparable in high school and have kept in touch these last 10 years, even though we don't spend as much time together as we'd like, we're still always there for the important things! That same night, Blake and I decided to randomly go to Medieval Times. Stella was staying at Blake's mom's house, so I love how spontaneous we were and how much fun we had!

{Girls Trip!}

{Loved spending time with these girls}

{Yep....these were a must}

{Having fun at the fair}

{Loved hanging out with my family}

{So sweet to see Stella having such a great time}

{She wore daddy out at the trampoline park}

{Cheering at the football game for her cousin}

{Tricycle Parade - I spent way too much time decorating that thing}

{Stella might have take quite a few trips in this train!}

{Party time!}

{I just die when I look at all these sweet pumpkin pictures}

{Love}

{She wouldn't stay in my lap very long, but at least we got a decent pic together!}

{Smiles!}

{Playing at G-Daddy's office}

{Three preggo friends!}

{It's a GIRL!}

{So glad we got to be part of this!}

{Our fun, random date night!}

{Love him}

What do you know, Stella Jo?

Stella is just as lively as she can be! She is ALL of two years old with the short fuse and ridiculous frustration levels. We're working on obeying with a "happy heart," and the tone in her voice when she's wanting or asking for things. I love seeing her come up with a plastered smile on her face to say, "Pweeaase Mommy!" And then I play the guessing game and twenty questions to try and figure out what's she's asking for! She'll then to proceed to tell me, "I'm happy girl" or "I have a happy heart." I can't lie - that kind of gets me and I'll usually do what she's asking, but if it's something like a treat, etc and I don't feel like she should have it, then I have to explain that it's so sweet that she's asking so politely, but sometimes we still don't get what we want. Well, no two year old understands that, so it's challenging this child-rearing thing, but I love it and it's the best job in the world. We're working diligently on "yes mam," "no mam," etc and I love to hear her say it when it's unprompted by us. This has only happened a few times, but I least I know she's listening and paying attention. 

{A rare occasion that she left a bow in her hair!}

I love listening to her on the monitor, especially in the mornings, singing her ABC's and at the end she claps for herself and yells "yay!!" I just giggle in bed and wait for her to start yelling, "Mommy.....mommy....I'm done sleeping....I sleep good!!" She never ceases to crack me up. She'll go on a roll saying over and over, "My mom, my dad, my mom, my dad." She's also picked up on my name and will sometimes call me "Faif" - and I'm real quick to squash that! I'm definitely NOT into "Faif" or "Mom" - I much more prefer "Momma" or "Mommy"! She's also been pointing at us and saying, "Mommy is a girl and Daddy is a boy." I'm not sure where she learned that or why she likes to keep pointing that out, but it's cute nonetheless! She's also started asking "Why?" to just about EVERYTHING! And I sincerely question if she understands the explanations, but I give them anyway. Or she'll ask a lot, "What happened?" And there's quite a few times that there's nothing going on and she'll just keep on asking. I can only imagine that the questions will get harder and more frequent! Her imagination impresses me and I still love to watch her play with all her babies and feed them, change their diapers, put them to sleep, and even the occasional disciplining them! She prefers Blake or I to be sitting in her play room while she plays, and I'm trying to soak that up since I know one day she'll be asking us to leave!

{I will never get tired of watching her sleep - her face still reminds me of when she was a newborn}

Although I don't think Stella fully understands about having a baby sister, she'll definitely engage and talk about it. She knows that she's the "big sister" and the "baby in the belly" is the little sister. You can ask her what her little sister's name is and she'll tell you, "Blakely" {Yes, our little girl will be Blakely Georgia}. She's started saying, "My Blakely" - which definitely melts me heart! I'm so excited to see what a great big sister she'll be. She's SO affectionate with everyone {on her terms and her time, of course} and loves to give kisses to just about everyone, so I know she'll love feeling some ownership and responsibility with her baby sister.

Stella is still loving preschool and talks about "Ms Amy" all the time. I asked Stella last Saturday what she wanted to do that day and her response was, "I wanna go to school." Social butterfly for sure! She absolutely has the memory of an elephant and at least once or twice during the day will ask me "Where is so-and-so?" So-and-so can be one of many people - Daddy, Gommy, G-Daddy, Mamaw, PaSte, PawPaw, Gamma, Haley, Angie, Christian, RyRy, RayRay, Micah, Paul, Pastor Bryan, Gavyn, LaLa, Avery, Missy, NeNe....and I promise, the list goes on!

I was able to get Stella's Halloween costume at Kid to Kid last weekend along with some long sleeve shirts for fall. Then, my mom took us to Kohl's and spoiled little Stella with some new clothes {shout out, Mom, you have no idea how much I appreciate this, especially with not having an income anymore - you're such a blessing and a help to us!!} I also had a gift card from Stella's birthday from my parents to Carter's, which I had saved purposely for some fall/winter clothes. With a coupon I had, I was able to only have to pay a few dollars of my own money and got quite a few things for my girl! I got a couple things for Blakely since she'll need some warmer stuff those first few months because Stella's newborn and 0-3 months clothes aren't for the cold weather!

{My loot from Carter's}

Speaking of cold weather - I'm so ready for the temperatures to cool down. We had an awesome afternoon outside at a family reunion with Blake's mom's family today. We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather and great visiting! We're so excited to go see our sweet niece be dedicated at church tomorrow! I'm loving all this family time!

{I'm a little freaked out that this means there's only 19 weeks LEFT!}

{She refuses to cuddle - but sometimes I force it anyway :)}

{Somebody wore herself out at the family reunion!}

20 Week Update

We are so excited to share that we'll be having a little GIRL! Knowing first-hand how fun it is to have a sister, I couldn't be more excited that Stella will get to experience this and I just love sweet little girls! Don't get me wrong, we would have been equally ecstatic for a boy, but I've said before, I'm just glad God gets to decide and not me!

The sonogram lasted a little over thirty minutes and it was just so special seeing all the little parts of our baby girl as she was squirming around. The sonographer mentioned a couple times that she was having to go out of order to look at the anatomy since our little munchkin was quite active....which may have been from the honey-bun I ate that morning....oops! After the sonogram, our doctor reviewed all the images and said we had a perfectly healthy and growing little 13 oz. girl in there. I cannot tell you how relieved I am to know that physically everything checks out and my doctor assured me that he's not concerned about the CMV and feels pretty certain this was something I got prior to being pregnant. The risk to our girl greatly drops if that's the case, and I'm so very thankful!

I really can't believe I'm already half way through this pregnancy and the last half will only go faster. Starting with this past weekend {which gave us a bit of a scare since I got overheated and really sick on Saturday}, we actually don't have a weekend without plans until the end of October...ugh! And then all the holiday hustle and bustle will start and I think I'm already tired just typing about it! I am glad that I'll have much less to do and buy for this little baby. I registered for a lot of gender-neutral items with Stella so I still have all the essentials and all her clothes...it's just a matter of getting Blake to help me get them from the attic! Plus, call me boring, but I'm keeping the same decor and bedding for this next baby. I'm just having trouble justifying re-doing a whole bedroom when this baby will be outgrowing it in a couple years. So, I'm opting to keep all the crib bedding and decor and then will concentrate on Stella's big girl room! I already have the bed and bedding, and then I've contacted our friends who re-paint furniture and they'll be working on a dresser and nightstand for her. My goal is to have her room done by Christmas and start her transition to her new room around that time.

We're just so very thrilled to have another healthy little daughter on the way!